Vulnerable employment in Mauritius: experience of an upper-middle-income country

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the socio-economic characteristics of workers engaged in vulnerable jobs in Mauritius. The study has a particular focus on the gender and youth dimensions of vulnerable employment. The study also provides a pre-crisis and post-crisis analysis of vulnerable employment. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses several waves of the continuous multi-purpose household survey, which is a high-quality individual-level data set, to study vulnerable employment. Several definitions of vulnerable employment are used to identify the workers employed in vulnerable jobs. These include “own-account” workers and “contributing family workers”. Findings The results obtained suggest that women and young workers have a lower probability of being in vulnerable employment. Marital status, age and education are also important variables influencing the probability of being in vulnerable employment. Research limitations/implications The paper has important policy implications regarding welfare and education policies. Appropriate mechanisms need to be put in place for the social protection and training of workers so that they do not end up in vulnerable jobs. Originality/value This paper studies Mauritius as it is a small island economy vulnerable to external shocks. Vulnerable unemployment has often been understudied as the focus of many studies has been solely on employment, and the quality of employment has often not been considered.